and
illustrative citations, in preparing his own version and explanatory

comments,
that nothing could have led him to forego the advantage of in-

serting
that distinguised name upon his title-page, except a natural unwill-

ingness
to make it answerable for the good or evil which is really his own.

At
the same time, he considers it by no means the least merit of the book,

that
it presents, in a smaller compass and a more familiar dress, the most

valuable
results of so masterly an exposition.

In justice to his work and to himself, the
author wishes it to be distinctly

understood,
that he has aimed exclusively at explanation, the discovery and

statement
of the meaning. To this he has confined himself for several

reasons:
first, because a wider plan would have required a larger book than

was
consistent with his general purpose; then, because this is really the

point
in which assistance is most needed by the readers of the Psalter; and

lastly,
because he had especially in view the wants of ministers, who are

better
able than himself to erect a doctrinal, devotional, or practical super-

structure
on the exegetical basis which he has endeavoured here to furnish.

It
follows of course, that the book is not designed to supersede the admirable

1

2PREFACE.

works
in common use, except so far as it may be found to correct their

occasional
errors of translation or verbal exposition.

It may be thought that, in order to
accomplish this design, the author

might
have satisfied himself with a bare translation.But experience has

more
and more convinced him, that the meaning of an author cannot be

fully
given in another language by the use of exact equivalents, which are

in
fact so few, that the deficiency can only be supplied by the addition of

synonymous
expressions or by explanatory paraphrase, or by exegetical

remark
directly added to the text, or by the use of all these means together.

The
idea which he has endeavoured here to realize is that of an amplified

translation.In the version properly so called, he has
endeavoured to pre-

serve,
not only the strength but the peculiar form of the original, which is

often
lost in the English Bible, by substituting literal for figurative and

general
for specific terms, as well as by a needless deviation from the order

of
the words in Hebrew, upon which the emphasis, if not the sense, is fre-

quently
dependent, and which has here been carefully restored wherever the

difference
of idiom would suffer it, and sometimes, it may possibly be thought,

without
regard to it.Another gratuitous
departure from the form of the

original,
which has been perhaps too scrupulously shunned, but not, it is

believed,
without advantage to the general character of the translation,

arises
from the habit of confounding the tenses, or merging the future and

the
past in a jejune and inexpressive present.The instances where this

rule
has been pushed to a rigorous extreme may be readily detected, but

will
not perhaps be thought to outweigh the advantage of preserving one

of
the most marked and striking features of the Hebrew language.

The plan of the book, as already defined,
has excluded not only all devo-

tional
and practical remark, but all attempt to give the history of the

interpretation,
or to enumerate the advocates and authors of conflicting

expositions.This, although necessary to a complete
exegetical work, would

rather
have defeated the design of this one, both by adding to its bulk and

by
repelling a large class of readers.It
has therefore been thought better to exclude it, or rather to reserve it for a
kindred work upon a large scale, if

such
should hereafter be demanded by the public.The same course has been

taken
with respect to a great mass of materials, relating to those topics

which
would naturally find their place in a Critical Introduction.Many of

these,
and such as are particularly necessary to the exposition, have been

noticed
incidentally as they occur.But
synoptical summaries of these, and

full
discussions of the various questions, as to the age and authors of the

several
psalms, the origin and principle of their arrangement, the best mode

of
classification, and the principles on which they ought to be interpreted,

would
fill a volume by themselves, without materially promoting the main

object
of the present publication.As the
topics thus necessarily excluded

will
probably constitute a principal subject of the author’s private and pro-

fessional
studies for some time to come, he is not without the hope of being

able
to bring something of this kind before the public, either in a separate

work
upon the Psalms, or in a general Introduction to the Scriptures.PREFACE.3

The difficulty of discussing these
preliminary matters within reasonable

compass,
although great in the case of any important part of Scripture, is

aggravated
by the peculiar structure of the Psalter, the most miscellaneous

of
the sacred books, containing a hundred and fifty compositions, each com-

plete
in itself, and varying in length, from two sentences (Ps. cxvii.) to a

hundred
and seventy-six (Ps. cxix.), as well as in subject, style, and tone,

the
work of many authors, and of different ages; so that a superficial reader

might
be tempted to regard it as a random or fortuitous collection of uncon-

nected
and incongruous materials.

A closer inspection shews, however, that
this heterogeneous mass is not

without
a bond of union; that these hundred and fifty independent pieces,

different
as they are, have this in common, that they are all poetical, not

merely
imaginative and expressive of feeling, but stamped externally with

that
peculiar character of parallelism, which distinguishes the higher style

of
Hebrew composition from ordinary prose. A still more marked resem-

blance
is that they are all not only poetical but lyrical, i. e. songs, poems

intended
to be sung, and with a musical accompaniment. Thirdly, they are

all
religious lyrics, even those which seem at first sight the most secular in

theme
and spirit, but which are all found on inquiry to be strongly expres-

sive
of religious feeling. In the fourth place, they are all ecclesiastical lyrics,

psalms
or hymns, intended to be permanently used in public worship, not

excepting
those which bear the clearest impress of original connection with

the
social, domestic, or personal relations and experience of the writers.

The book being thus invested with a certain
unity of spirit, form, and

purpose,
we are naturally led to seek for something in the psalms them-

selves,
which may determine more definitely their relation to each other.

The
first thing of this kind that presents itself is the existence, in a very

large
proportion, of an ancient title or inscription, varying in length and ful-

ness;
sometimes simply describing the composition, as a psalm, a song, a

prayer,
&c.; sometimes stating the subject or historical occasion, either in

plain
or enigmatical expressions; sometimes directing the performance, by

indicating
the accompanying instrument, by specifying the appropriate key

or
mode, or by naming the particular performer: these various intimations

occurring
sometimes singly, but frequently in combination.

The strenuous attempts which have been made
by modern writers to

discredit
these inscriptions, as spurious additions of a later date, containing

groundless
and erroneous conjectures, often at variance with the terms and

substance
of the psalm itself, are defeated by the fact that they are found

in
the Hebrew text, as far as we can trace its history, not as addenda, but

as
integral parts of the composition; that such indications of the author

and
the subject, at the commencement of a composition, are familiar both

to
classical and oriental usage; and that the truth of these inscriptions may

in
every case be vindicated, and in none more successfully than those which

seem
at first sight least defensible, and which have therefore been appealed

to,
with most confidence, as proofs of spuriousness and recent date.

The details included in this general
statement will be pointed out as they

4PREFACE.

occur,
but are here referred to by anticipation, to explain and vindicate the

constant
treatment of the titles in this volume as an integral part of the

sacred
text, which in some editions of the Bible has been mutilated by

omitting
them, and in others dislocated or confused, for the purposes of refer-

ence,
by passing them over in the numeration of the verses.As this last arrangement is familiar to all
readers of the English Bible, an attempt has been made in the following
exposition to consult their convenience, by add-

ing
the numbers of the English to those of the Hebrew text, wherever they

are
different.

Another point of contact and resemblance
between these apparently de-

tached
and independent compositions is the frequent recurrence of set

phrases
and of certain forms extending to the structure of whole psalms,

such
as the alphabetical arrangement, in which the successive sentences or

paragraphs
begin with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.This is the more remarkable, because these alphabetic psalms have all a
common

character,
distinguishing them from the rest, to wit, that instead of a pro-

gression
of ideas, they consist of variations on a theme propounded at the outset,
whether this be regarded as the cause or the effect of the peculiar

form
itself.

The same inquiries which have led to these
conclusions also shew that the arrangement of the psalms in the collection is
by no means so unmean-

ing
and fortuitous as may at first sight seem to be the case, but that in

many
instances at least, a reason may be found for the juxtaposition, in

resemblance
or identity of subject or historical occasion, or in some

remarkable
coincidence of general form or of particular expressions.If

in
some cases it is difficult to trace the reason of the collocation, there are

others
in which two psalms bear so intimate and obvious a mutual relation,

that
they seem to constitute a pair or double psalm, either because they

were
originally meant to match each other, or because one has been sub-

sequently
added for the purpose.Sometimes,
particularly in the latter

part
of the collection, we may trace not only pairs but trilogies, and even

more
extensive systems of connected psalms, each independent of the rest,

and
yet together forming beautiful and striking combinations, particularly

when
the nucleus or the basis of the series is an ancient psalm; for instance

one
of David’s, to which others have been added, in the way of variation or of
imitation, at a later period, such as that of the Captivity.

Although the facts just mentioned are
sufficient to evince that the Book

of
Psalms was not thrown together at random, but adjusted by a careful

hand,
the principle of the arrangement is not always so apparent, or of

such
a nature as to repress the wish to classify the psalms and reduce them

to
some systematic order.The most obvious
arrangement would be that

by
authors, if the data were sufficient.But although the title ascribe one

to
Moses, seventy-two to David, two to Solomon, twelve to Asaph, one to

Ethan,
and eleven to the Sons of Korah, it is doubtful in some of the

cases,
more particularly those last mentioned, whether the title was designed

to
indicate the author or the musical performer, and more than fifty are

PREFACE.5

anonymous.
In some of these the hand of David may be still distinctly

traced,
but as to most, we are abandoned to conjecture, which of course

affords
no solid basis for a satisfactory or useful distribution.

Another principle of classification is the
internal character, the subject,

style,
and manner of the psalms. This was applied by the older writers,

in
accordance with the forms of artificial rhetoric, and with endless variety

in
the result. But the best application of the principle is that proposed by

Hengstenberg,
and founded on the tone of pious feeling which the psalm

expresses:
whether joyous, as in the general psalms of praise, and more

especially
in those of thanksgiving; or sad, as in the querulous and peni-

tential
psalms; or calm, as in most of the prophetic and didactic psalms.

All
these, however, are arrangements which the reader can make best to

please
himself, and which are rather the results of exposition than prelimi-

nary
aids to it.

Apart from these attempts at systematic
distribution and arrangement,

there
is also a question with respect to the division of the Psalter as it

stands.
There is an ancient division into five parts, corresponding, as the

Rabbins
say, to the five books of Moses, and indicated by doxologies at the

close
of Ps. xli., lxxii., lxxxix., cvi., while Ps. cl. is itself a doxology,

winding
up the whole. The modern critics, more especially in Germany,

have
tasked their ingenuity to prove that these are distinct collections,